I worked with a recruiter who reached out to me via LinkedIn.

Initially, I wasn't looking to interview, but after a few months, the recruiter contacted me again. It was a better time then, so I gave it a shot.

The phone screens went really well, and I thought the onsite interviews went well too.

However, the experience left me quite confused. Two days after the interview, the recruiter sent me an email with false hopes. The email read along the lines of, "Let's discuss the next steps." Then, when we talked on the phone, I was told that although all the interviews went really well, one of them wasn't excellent, and therefore they were sad to deliver the bad news.

Honestly, I wasn't totally convinced that I wanted to work for Airbnb, but I thought I'd give it a shot since the company talks so much about "compassion" and "belonging."

I don't believe compassionate people use non-transparent language to communicate. I also don't believe smart people value others solely on the basis of a single interview not being "excellent."

Interview Stages:

• Phone Screen 1: HTML/CSS/JavaScript problem on CodePen
• Phone Screen 2: JavaScript problem on CodePen
• Onsite: Three coding interviews, one lunch, two cross-functional, and one about your past experience working on a project.

I liked that I was able to write code in CodePen instead of a whiteboard or any other environment where code execution isn't possible.

Additionally, I enjoyed the cross-functional parts because they allowed me to be more relaxed.

I thought the Frontend-focused questions were pragmatic and realistic for the most part.

I have mixed feelings about the one general coding question. The interviewer for this question was constantly pulling me in different directions, as if they were trying to confuse me on purpose.

I signed their NDA and cannot disclose, but strong UI, JavaScript, and general programming experience is needed.